The listening session at Fir Grove Elementary in
Beaverton wasn't intended to focus on budget cuts, but there is little else to
talk about in the district these days.

Nothing has hit Beaverton's schools with as much impact
as the $26 million to $30 million in projected reductions, and folks are having a hard time shaking it off.

Fir Grove Elementary Principal Jared Cordon said the cuts
are pitting some programs and people against others as some are reduced and
others aren't.

"I think people feel that, literally, we have competing
interests," he said.

Among the crowd Thursday night were the regulars - custodians, librarians, special education
teachers and instructional assistants. Their positions remain on the line
despite the district budget committee approving reductions that appear to safeguard
them. But nothing is final, yet, as a couple of librarians learned this week.

An elementary and a middle school librarian received word
that their jobs will not exist next school year, according to other school
librarians. The budget committee may have saved their positions, but principals
at the individual schools have the flexibility to make their own reductions
based on the needs at their sites.

It appeared to cause some resentment among educators at the meeting who
said that allowing a school to cut a particular position while another school
keeps it will create inequities across the district.

A few people said the lack of transparency from the
district about the changes made them question their plans to volunteer to help pass
the local option levy in November.

"We need to have positive public relations and it needs
to start now," said an elementary librarian.

But Superintendent Jerry Colonna said the budget is still
fluid and invited people to continue to make their cases. The school board is
expected to adopt the budget on June 7 or June 20 and may make further changes.

Among the roughly 75 people in the crowd were three women,
youth service coordinators, whose positions were not safeguarded by the budget
committee. They expect to lose their jobs, but Darla Harrison said she worried
more about the students she would be leaving behind. This year, she worked with
students who had been victims of sex trafficking, abandoned by their parents,
gang raped, homeless and suicidal.

"I can't tell you the number of students who come into my
office and say they're suicidal," Harrison said. "These are the kids you see
walking down the halls with all this baggage."

The three women worked with 600 students this year. If
their jobs are cut, only three youth service coordinators remain to work with
students.